XJ550 83 Seca Battery, high idle and knocking

Hi Everyone-

I just got my first motorcycle last week and its a '83 550 SECA. So I decided to be brave today and try to ride the bike to work through hills and traffic of San Francisco. On my way down the first hill, the bike dies. I believe its a battery issue so I'm going to stop by the store on the way home and pick one up. The battery gauge is below 12 when the bike is not started. I have never done any mechanic work except help my dad change the oil when I was a kid.

What tools would I need to change the battery?
What battery should I get for the '83 550 SECA.

The clymers book is in the mail. Know that I have discovered this site, I will pick up the XJ cd. In the meantime, is there a place where I can find instructions on how to replace a battery on this bike.


There are three issues that I also noticed with the bike:

1) Bike spontaneously reving high. Seems I have to peruse this site to get some answers to that issue.

2) The pistons are "knocking." Does anyone have a clue on this?

3) When I first start the bike, it idles for a bit then it dies? It does not seem to idle well. Does this mean I have to rebuild the carburator. I saw a few posts that says it might be good to rebuild the carb and they have kits. What is the price range on this kit? Is it simple to follow especially for someone who has never really worked on engines.

Thanks so much for the help. This site has been a wealth of information.

 

Welcome to the gang Seca550_SF, your bound to find lots of nifty tidbits here and there on these pages. I cannot give you any thoughts on your first question, I'm not a carburator type of guy (though I can hold my own in maintaining them). As for your knock issue, have you been running 87 octane fuel? Two issues may be causing this. Your timing might be off or your running too low of an octane. The quick and easy fix is go up in octane rating (try 89 and see if it doesn't fix the problem first, then try 91 if it doesn't) but this still would point to a timing issue or an incorrect sparkplug selection/gap. Tune up the bike and try this all over again. As for your third question, refer to the last sentence of question number two. A through and through cleaning and tune up should address most of problems two and three. A carb rebuild kit may not be necessary if all of your internals are in good shape. Worst case scenario, you should wait for the book and read up on it. This will cost you only time. I'm not familiar with the 550's at all so I'm only speaking in a general sense here, someone with more experience with your type should be along shortly to help you sort it out. Regards, Rob.

 

Welcome Seca550

Battery is located under the right hand side cover. Carefully remove the side cover and the battery is behind a plastic cover with the voltage regulator attached to it. Undo the two screws on the left side of the plastic cover and pull it off. You can leave the regulator attached and just let it hang there while you change the battery. All you need is a screwdriver and a small spanner to remove the leads. Type of screwdriver and size of spanner may not be original so I won't specify sizes.

But Before you change it do a few checks as the battery may still be fine.
With the key on the voltage will sit below 12 volts as the headlight/taillight is probably on and drawing power. If you pull the fuse for the headlight then the voltage should go back to 12. When the bike is running above 2000 rpm then the guage should read around 14 volts. If it is then this should prevent the bike from dieing while riding.

The 550 voltage meter is by no means accurate so don't put too much faith in it. On mine the voltage drops to about seven volts on the meter every time the indicators flash.

Also, try your indicators with the key on and engine not running. If they flash then you definately do not have a battery problem.

I would suggest a simple carb tune up may solve most of your problems if the PO used the bike regularly. If it has been sitting for a while the a carb clean and rebuild may be required.

Knocking.
Bit more info required as to when it knocks. Does it knock just at idle and does the noise change when you pull the clutch lever in. Or does it knock all the time at an revs.

Hope this helps and good luck.

HG

 

Hi-

Thanks Rob and HG for all the help. I was able to replace the battery. My first motorcycle repair . Well not really. So after I replaced the battery, it still dies. So here is what I have observed. I decided to put some oil this morning because i thought it was running low (based on the window right under the rear brake). I decided to put the oil I used for the car 5W30. I do not know if that is the cause but thats when things started to go bad. It started fine after I put the oil in. I rode it down the hill, then as I was riding, the engine would start to die. I adjusted the choke and had it fully open. I got to a stop sign and the engine died and I was unable to restart it. The starter sounded like it was cranking but it would not start. So instead of riding the bike to work, I had to leave it parked on the side and take public transportation . After work, I tried to restart and it started fine. I rode it back up the hill. After that, I turned it off and tried to restart. Again it was having a hard time. I replaced the battery, and still not good. I never had this problem till this morning. So thats why I suspect it was the oil. It seems to happen if the engine is warmed up.

>> It seems to knock all the time. I just got the bike 2 weeks ago and I have not filled it with gas yet. I do not know what gas the original owner put. I know he did use it to work. I checked the gas and there is still a good amount in the tank. I will try to put the premium gas next time I fill it and see if that resolves the issue. Should I be using those fuel additives to clean the carb? How do I tell if all four plugs are firing? If all four cylinders are working? I wanted to take it to the shop for the tune up but i cant ride it . Anyways, I called several shops in SF and since the bike is older than 20, pretty much all the shops said they wont be able to work on it. There is a shop here in sf called motojava. They are super friendly and said they can look at the bike. However, when i described the symptoms, knocking, high rev during idle, they said that a tune up might not solve the problem and said it might need a valve adjusment which they don't do.

thanks for the help-

sf_seca

 

I would drain the crud in the tank and start out fresh. Run the crummy gas in the car, diluted with fresh to help ease it's burden. I would run a half a can of either Seafoam or Berrymann's Chemtool in with a full tank of fresh High Test (91 octane). I would also suggest you run at least 10-40 weight in your machine, the 5-30 might not have enough viscosity for the system to properly lubricate itself on startup. I have an extremely good friend out in San Leandro who used to wrench with me on our bikes. He is highly competent and loves older machines. I'll get in touch with him and see if he can help you out. I'll keep you posted.

 

now pay attention, because this question is very important...

is the oil you used for your car that you put in SJ grade oil? and if so, does the SAE/API circle on the bottle say anything along the lines of "energy conserving"?

if it DOES drain ALL of the oil out of your crank case, and refill with a non-"energy conserving" oil. This is probably not the cause of any oif your problems. However it will create a problem with your clutch, as it is lubricated with engine oil, and energy c onserving oils contain teflon, a friction modifier... obviously friction in a clutch is a good thing, making teflon a BAAAAAAd thing.

as for your dying while going down hills, you might want to check your float bowls for there fill height using some clear tubing. It should be 3-4mm beneath the gasket line if i remember correctly.

Also perhaps TDI issues? someone by the name of dave made a very good site covering t hese issues.

Maybe its electrical as i asume you woudl be coasting witht eh clutch in or braking going down hill. Thhis would presumably lead me to think battery as the alternator generates no usable current at that engine speed. but seeing as you replaced that, i suppose corrosion would be the next guess.

If your bike had trouble starting, take the plugs out after cranking. are they wet/fouled? basicly checking to see if fuel/air mixture is entering combustion chamber. as compression and voltage are clearly present... Make sure to check for a loose spark plug wire.

perhaps a carbsync/tune would resolve some of these issues.

just my two cents... sorry for the horrible typing skilllz... its late and im exhauseted running on no sleep./

P.S. Also i agree with robert, try some 91 octane and see if the knocking stops.

P.P.S. i would run a fuel line cleaner, i find that yamaha makes a product available at all dealers called "ring free" its a fuel additive, and it works VERY well. I recomend running 12 or so gallons with the "shock" strength (2oz/gal) to clean out your fuel system. if your exhaust is gross and sooty and smells awful and smokes occasionaly while running this, that is normal, its jsut all the crap getting burned out. Do not fret!